The Bridge on the River Kwai (4/8) Movie CLIP - A Lot to Learn About the Army (1957) HD

The Bridge on the River Kwai movie clips: j.mp/1Jbb3Mk
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CLIP DESCRIPTION:
When Major Clipton (James Donald) wonders if building the bridge is a good idea, Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness) is appalled and puts the Major in his place.
FILM DESCRIPTION:
The Bridge on the River Kwai opens in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in Burma in 1943, where a battle of wills rages between camp commander Colonel Saito (Sessue Hayakawa) and newly arrived British colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness). Saito insists that Nicholson order his men to build a bridge over the river Kwai, which will be used to transport Japanese munitions. Nicholson refuses, despite all the various "persuasive" devices at Saito's disposal. Finally, Nicholson agrees, not so much to cooperate with his captor as to provide a morale-boosting project for the military engineers under his command. The colonel will prove that, by building a better bridge than Saito's men could build, the British soldier is a superior being even when under the thumb of the enemy. As the bridge goes up, Nicholson becomes obsessed with completing it to perfection, eventually losing sight of the fact that it will benefit the Japanese. Meanwhile, American POW Shears (William Holden), having escaped from the camp, agrees to save himself from a court martial by leading a group of British soldiers back to the camp to destroy Nicholson's bridge. Upon his return, Shears realizes that Nicholson's mania to complete his project has driven him mad. Filmed in Ceylon, Bridge on the River Kwai won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director for the legendary British filmmaker David Lean, and Best Actor for Guinness. It also won Best Screenplay for Pierre Boulle, the author of the novel on which the film was based, even though the actual writers were blacklisted writers Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson, who were given their Oscars under the table.
CREDITS:
TM & © Sony (1957)
Cast: James Donald, Alec Guinness
Director: David Lean
Producers: Sam Spiegel, Jim Painten
Screenwriters: Michael Wilson, Carl Foreman, Pierre Boulle
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[@phimseto]

This scene is such a great example of how casting beyond the leads makes a world of difference. Guinness is fantastic as always, but the reason this scene absolutely crackles is the talent that James Donald brings to his role. Supporting roles and how they play out are often the difference between a good film and a great one.

[@aet5807]

Agreed. All those “smaller roles” were brilliantly acted. The young man who played the guy who was in charge of blowing up the bridge at the end was also a fully developed, three dimensional character. This is a perfect film.

[@tmrezzek5728]

Guinness won a well-deserved Academy Award for his performance here. He's simply tremendous; he's average height and average weight, but when he speaks--BOOM--he's the most authoritative guy in a scene and takes over without yelling or waving his arms or doing other phony 'acting' gestures. Hard to believe David Lean first considered Charles Laughton for the role of Nicholson...

[@slyasleep]

Ooh, that would‘ve been interesting…

[@roquefortfiles]

Because Guinness probably knew a few British soldiers and understood the mentality. Especially officers.

[@frereM]

One of the greatest movies ever. I saw it in the '50s and am still amazed and inspired by it. So many great performances in it. When I saw, much later, Alec Guinness in "Lady Killers', I was amazed. What an actor!

[@jamie1453]

Just watch any of the many documentaries, you will soon learn the movie isn't remotely representative of what reality there was. I live in Thailand and just returned from Kanchanaburi.

[@jackflash743]

i like many actors, o toole olivier, guilgold harris, burton hopkins, but as good as they all are, its hard to beat guiness

[@jb47vintage]

Alec Guiness was so awesome in this scene that when he was through speaking, I had an impulse to join the British army. From California! And I'm 74! I knew he was good (George Smiley, Kind Hearts and Coronets), for a moment there he owned me.

[@williamhicks7736]

Great example of a conversation where one man tries to help another by asking a simple question- “Is this a good idea?” And the other man refuses to consider the possibility that he may be making a mistake... Love this scene!

[@JoseCortes-on6uy]

This may be a minor point, but it seems that something snapped in Lieutenant Colonel Nicholson while he was in the punishment box. His reasoning appears solid. but there is an undercurrent of unease, perhaps madness, hinted by the music cue at the end of the clip. If he was such a stickler before being taken prisoner it's odd that his officers, who should know him better than anyone, are surprised when he tells them he wants to build a proper bridge.

[@NikoChristianWallenberg]

No; nothing "snapped" - you are just trying to over-analyze it.

[@dorkmax7073]

@@NikoChristianWallenberg no, he has a point. An officer's first duty is to contributing to the war effort, including in actions of sabotage (improperly building a bridge for the enemy).

[@vonVince]

@@NikoChristianWallenberg exactly.

[@pix046]

"If you had to operate under Saito would you do your best or would you let him die?"

[@CaptainX2012]

I think it was more out of sympathy for Saito (The Japanese general, I can't remember if that is actually his name) and he is trying to hide that empathetic weakness. Saito is a fellow general, but hints that he would die if the bridge wasn't finished.

[@jandrewhearne]

I’ve always loved the way the film looks in this movie. It looks so much better than other contemporary movies.

[@nihaalsandim9986]

David lean always has great compositions

[@kailashpatel1706]

Alec Guinness disdained the character and thought he was indeed a traitor and collaborator (Guinness was a former Naval man himself)

[@stephenolan5539]

Alec Guinness disdained another character he played a lot more than this one. A lot more.

[@geetadhumane5793]

@@stephenolan5539 he never disdain Kenobi, he didn't like the dialogues

[@stephenolan5539]

@@geetadhumane5793 Good point. There was a line of dialogue that Mark Hamil refused to say.

[@aligborat]

The character in the book was apparently not very likeable, both Lean and Guinness worked to make him at the very least understandable, letting his sense of duty and honor overwhelm his common sense. Pierre Boule apparently modeled him on French officers in Indo-China who collaborated with the Japanese after being defeated, much like they did in France with the Germans.

[@freemarketjoe9869]

This is one of my favorite parts of the film. Clifton asking if they should be building such a good bridge. I would have had to ask the same question if I were there. What the devil are you thinking, man?

[@aet5807]

It’s one of the most important scenes in the film. Where you really start to question Nicholson’s judgement, especially since he’s been shown to be a man of courage, pride, and doing “what’s right.” He makes good points here, however, doesn’t see the bigger picture. God I love this movie.

[@OriginalCoastalDistancing]

You’re a fine movie critic, free market joe, but you’ve a lot to learn about the army.

[@freemarketjoe9869]

@@OriginalCoastalDistancing And you are one strange dude!

[@roquefortfiles]

Guinness is as nuts as Saito. They're two sides of the same coin.

[@noobie1890]

It seems like all the good movies came out decades ago....

[@AlonsoRules]

CG came along and ruined film making to some extent

[@peterfrank3365]

A true epic like this? Perhaps. But good movies in general has not gone extinct, they just go a bit under the radar. No, CGI didn't ruin anything.

[@popflicktionedits3256]

@@AlonsoRules cgi ruined nothing, it improved filmmaking when it was first being used

[@FoodForThought356]

CGI has ruined films, full stop. It doesn't even look believable most of the time. Stunt men must be out of a job too, given CGI does the work for them nowadays, and therefore less realism.

[@pix046]

This movie came from a novel written by a Frenchman. What an incredible insight into the British character from a Frenchman. Pierre Boulle.

[@corin492]

its not at all. Read the real story, the British soldiers in Japanese captivity maintained a policy of sabotage and escape, the real person Nicolson was based on was a hero. This is great fiction, not fact

[@shuntguy]

Boulle also wrote the book Planet of the Apes was based on.

[@williamturner1517]

"You've a lot to learn about the army". The military is a way of life. Not just a job. And far more than just a profession.

[@OnochieAfigbo]

Interesting argument from both sides...

[@tomservo5347]

Whatever movie James Donald was in I immediately liked. He brought an easy classiness to every role.

[@MuhammadYousaf-yg6tw]

100 percent pure gold every time new one move not old

[@Solitude47152]

This scene makes the entire movie. As a doctor would you do your best? Take a good look. Wow !!

[@nicheman3612]

I despair at the jingoism in some of these comments - did you not watch the film to the end? Whilst Nicholson's inner reserve of strength is admirable to a point, his stubborn, unbending pride nearly sabotages the greater war effort.

[@georgejones8481]

If only they were actually treated this way.....

[@WQuantrill]

Guinness in this film is one of my favorite characters of all time. He really embodies the spirit of the British people

[@DarkGlass824]

Technically they actually did, British or American pows, to impede the enemy rather than assist. One of the reasons pows would escape was because they knew it aided the war effort.

[@realistic.optimist]

They are both correct.

[@rohanmarkjay]

This is a great scene. Which showcases the thinking and why he Col. Nicholson wanted to build the Bridge properly to a high standard like British engineers and workers would normally do in British colonial countries like India or Sri Lanka and other places in Africa or Caribbean where the British Empire was. Yes its Col. Nicholsons British pride in doing a good job and taking their work very seriously. But the Doctor reminded him that British prisoners are in the middle of a jungle under Japanese captivity building a bridge that is helping the Japanese win the war rather than the British. Col. Nicholson forgot about the outcome of the war and that had the Japanese won WW2 they would have probably blown up the bridge later anyway. Its only at the end of the movie does Col. Nicholsen realise his pride in his country and culture and ego prevented him from seeing things clearly reality and the bigger picture that they are in the middle of a global war that could determine the outcome of the fate of the world. In the end he realises and says what says his final words of his life "What have I done." And redeems himself and falls on the detonator blowing up the bridge he built himself under his directon but it cost Col. Nicholsen his life and we see one of the greatest ending in all war films. When the British Doctor says showing what thought about the war and what he had lived through in the Japanese camp. When he says the world. "Madness...Madness.." Then the director cuts to an eagle flying high in the sky over a beatiful natural sunny landscape. Suggesting. Whatever war Human beings may wage on each other. The real ultimate winner is Mother Nature and the balance restored. This is why this movie is one the greatest movies ever made and beatifully shot in technicolor. You actually feel like you are a better human being after watching the movie than before it and thats what great art like Bridge on the River Kwai does.

[@alecsardo2635]

This is Steven Spielberg favorite war movie

[@TheCoolProfessor]

I love the British! Such a wonderful culture.

[@jasonyang966]

Arrogant people

[@mackeybossmaikuellien1392]

Love British

[@Ephraim32]

Massive Sigh yup. Like owning half the world and then subsequently loosing all of it.

[@ragingroyal729]

Nathan Bowman so that means every European country can’t be proud because they’ve all lost land??

[@Ephraim32]

Raging Royal i think the whole “owned half the world” then within a century “barely able to hold onto great Britain herself” would put kind of a dampener on any since of pre-1940 military and government pride. Honestly Great Britain peaked and hit it’s highest and lowest point in history during the battle for great britain. Lost everything. Still survived.

[@roberthaworth9097]

This spirit is what once won the relative handful of inhabitants of a little island group in NW Europe control of 25% of the known world.

[@RiggidyDiggidyRaw]

Robert Haworth Couldn't take Eire tho m8

[@c3aloha]

Robert Haworth all the pink bits

[@johnhardman3]

With a little slavery along the way.

[@heinrichb]

@@johnhardman3 you mean the same slavery that they were also the first to eradicate?

[@hongquiao]

I'm not sure this movie is painting as flattering a portrait of England as you seem to think. It shows how colonial arrogance is a self-defeating mindset. Lieutenant Colonel Nicholson is so obsessed with asserting his nation's engineering superiority to his Japanese captors that he is HELPING them while DELUDING himself that posterity will marvel at his bridge and spare a thought to the soldiers (not slaves) who built it....

[@blackbird5634]

If you watch the historical account of the real bridge, and you listen to the men who were there, you'll never watch this movie again and see it the same way. It will pale in comparison to the hour you spend looking at photos, drawings and even films of that dreadful event.

[@lepetitchat123]

Sure, but this film is more like a character study for me. People like colonel Nicholson live among us and they are big troublemakers

[@blackbird5634]

@@lepetitchat123 I agree. The film is special in many ways.

[@dwaynesbadchemicals]

“You’re a fine doctor, Clifton. But you’ve a lot to learn about the army.

[@doogboy]

Amazing!

[@bartmann81]

This scene - and indeed the entire film! - is great lesson for screenwriters. You have to bring the point of view of every character with the same level of convinction and reason. If you do it well, it hightens tension. If you do it badly, audiance will see through it.

[@dwaynesbadchemicals]

Such a great film.

[@nihaalsandim9986]

The colonel knew alot about the Army ,but pretty much nothing about War

[@steveconkey7362]

He started out right, but lost is way.

[@paulfri1569]

Good points here 👍

[@jackrabbit5047]

Madness!

[@James-le1gl]

This is Hollywood. The fact is that the Japanese had very competent civil engineers and were able to build a proper bridge. Also, in real life, Saito was not a Colonel, but a sergeant major.

[@c3aloha]

James and the book was written by a Frenchman

Even so, if you are at war with someone, don't you think you would hold your own people as being better than the enemy? Of course Nicholson thinks the British are better than the Japanese.

[@wikipediaintellectual7088]

I’m sure they had many competent engineers, but that doesn’t mean there would be any among this particular group of Japanese.

[@fredo1070]

What a script.

[@2literoverlord482]

Where the comments at

[@zinki120]

Obi-Wan building bridges.

[@EthanThomson]

wait, thats guiness?

[@elchichosantana6410]

To secure his HIGH GROUND

[@wikipediaintellectual7088]

Ironically there is a comic with Obi-wan based off of this movie.

[@zinki120]

@@wikipediaintellectual7088 , really? What is the name of the comic?

[@angloaust1575]

The movie was entertaining If not true to life Although 20percent died The rest survived In the capture of dienbienphu Of the 10.000 pows only 3.000 survived A sixty percent death rate And they werent building a Railway!

[@ironninja2173]

Alec Guinness is Obiwan always

[@Rheinmetall1]

Here is the point of the whole film.

[@aarondaines6067]

Bravo!

[@c3aloha]

Madness

[@randyhuy2889]

The only things I see wrong here are the abuses. Treat people right and the people will treat you right in return. People need compassion and tolerance. Create good purposes.

[@grimoknobel]

Rather hard in these times I think

[@1janeybug]

I doubt that would be reciprocated in a Japanese pow camp where they executed and beheaded many a prisoner

[@paulhue86]

Imagine today presuming that the English would build a better bridge that the Japanese

[@magnus75damkier]

I know the story makes Nicholson out to be the "villain" (although not with bad intentions), as he does help the Japanese with infrastructure during wartime. That's also his revelation at the end, seemingly. However, I think he makes execellent points in this scene. He adheres to principles above conflicts of the contemporary, practically saves his fellow prisoners (the received treatment historically inaccurate as that may be) and builds something to outlast the Japanese Fascist Jingoism. His strength and unbending will is just so admirable, and honestly the first time I watched it, I rooted for him all the way and for the bombing to be foiled. He exemplifies what a soldier should be and do, to his own men and, more importantly, to his enemies, gaining their respect. The message to disprove the quality of will and pride, seems a bit weak to me; do not collaborate with the evil enemy. Compared to the argument Nicholson puts up and represents, it falls, at least thematically for me, flat.

[@raytewell7067]

May the force be with you.

[@Linkacide]

Badass

[@kevinhealey6540]

The real English soldiers kept on sabotaging the bridge. The put termites in the wood for instance.

[@rg.3842]

I love this 🎥 film...Now,everytime I watch it,I have this tremendously urge to have a Asian meal...Chinese food and sweet 🍵!I do!I do!😏

[@equusquaggaquagga536]

Nicholson is the true villain He collaborated with the enemy He usurped Saito's job

[@andy99ish]

Nonsense. Civilized wars are not total wars. POWs are treated well and they have their duties in turn.

[@Abdullahahmad2001]

Interesting Clip. I feel the general has a point. The brits need to build it and better make it well then not. they cannot be called treason commuters as they are prisoners of war

[@DS-wk1kn]

1) Nicholson is a colonel, not a general. 2) They are obliged to work, but to do it so well is helping their enemy.

[@dandavis8300]

@@DS-wk1kn--His heroic resolve to make the Japanese adhere to the Geneva Convention has already delayed them a month. Now he regards it a point of honor to adhere to the letter to the same agreement. His rigidity on this point is further humiliation to Saito. A crappy bridge would probably serve the Japanese as well as a good one.

[@grimoknobel]

In France, after the war, french POWs and people who were forced to work in Germany, where generally hated and viewed by traitors sadly.

[@30mokhsittisomwong58]

สะพานแม่นำ้แคว

[@DS-wk1kn]

My thoughts exactly.

[@rekotim]

Timo Rekonen: ([phone]

[@Cannibal713]

This movie borders on racism. The Japanese couldn't design a wood bridge without white men to show them how?

[@Key_highway]

I just visited hellfire pass on the line the other day and whatever they say about them is fair 10 000 allied soldiers and 80 000 civilians died making this railway and they deserve every insult

[@0megacron]

When you're looking for racism, you'll be able to find it anywhere.

[@johnhardman3]

@@Key_highway The railway in the picture was a fictional one: the bridge seen in it was just a prop: the real Japanese were a lot more vicious than the ones portrayed in this picture. In reality, the prisoners were treated brutally even when weak from disease and malnutrition.

[@NyuuMikuru1]

Funny how racism from one point is acceptable but racism in another is not.

[@britishamerican4321]

No, they could not.